IT Talent Acquisition

Hire the people
who build
what's next.

TalentScale is a specialist IT talent acquisition and HR consultancy. We find and place the technical talent that drives companies forward — across Portugal, Europe and the United States.

"The right hire changes the trajectory of a company."

3
Markets
100%
Tech focus
2
Founders
We operate across
Portugal European Union United States Software Engineering Data & AI DevOps & Infrastructure Executive & Leadership
Who we are

Built by people
who know
technical hiring.

TalentScale was built by practitioners — people who have sat across from hiring managers and candidates and understand what both sides of the conversation actually need. We are not generalist recruiters who moved into tech. We built our careers here.

We work across Portugal, the EU and the US, giving our clients access to talent networks and market intelligence that no single-market firm can match. Every engagement is led by a founder. No account managers, no handoffs.

Specialist-only

We work exclusively in IT and tech. Deep domain knowledge in every search.

Founder-led

Every mandate is handled by a co-founder. Start to finish, no handoffs.

Three-market reach

Portugal, EU and US networks. Passive candidates that no job board surfaces.

Transparent process

You know what we're doing and why at every stage. No inflated longlists.

What we do

Five services.
One focus.

Each engagement is scoped to your specific situation — not a pre-packaged solution. We tailor the approach to the complexity of the search and the maturity of your hiring function.

01
Executive Search

Senior and C-level technical appointments — CTO, VP Engineering, Head of Data, Head of Product. Discreet, thorough, rigorous. Passive candidates first.

Leadership
02
IT Recruitment

Specialist placement of software engineers, data professionals, DevOps, QA and infrastructure talent across the EU and US tech markets.

Technical
03
HR Consulting

People strategy, compensation benchmarking, levelling frameworks and talent process improvement for tech-led companies at scale.

Advisory
Recruitment Process Outsourcing (RPO)

We embed as your talent acquisition function — scaling with your hiring needs across multiple roles, teams and geographies. Ideal for companies growing fast across markets.

05
Talent Strategy

Workforce planning, employer brand positioning and pipeline development aligned to your product roadmap and growth trajectory.

Strategic
How we work

A process built
around precision.

Our four-stage process is designed to surface the right candidates — not the most available ones. We work methodically and keep you informed without drowning you in updates.

1
Brief & Discovery

We go deep on the real requirement — the technical must-haves, the culture signals, the deal-breakers. We read between the lines so you don't have to explain twice.

2
Market Mapping

We activate our network across Portugal, the EU and the US. Passive candidates first — the best people are almost never actively looking.

3
Shortlist & Assessment

You see a tight shortlist, not a long list. Every candidate is spoken to and assessed before they reach you. Detailed profiles included.

4
Close & Onboard

We manage the offer and the transition. Counteroffers happen — we prepare for them. The placement is not complete until the person is settled in role.

Selected work

Real mandates.
Real results.

All cases are anonymised. Full details available on request under NDA. These are representative of the work we do — not exceptional outliers.

Executive Search · Lisbon

CTO placement for a Series B fintech scaling into Northern Europe

The client had run a six-month internal search without result. We identified and placed a passive candidate — someone not on any job board — within eleven weeks.

11w
Time to offer
1st
Candidate shortlisted placed
RPO · Remote · EU

Engineering team buildout for a US SaaS company entering Portugal

Embedded as the client's European TA function. Hired 14 engineers across backend, data and infrastructure in 6 months across three time zones.

14
Engineers placed
6mo
Full team built
Talent Strategy · Porto

Employer brand redesign for a scale-up competing against Big Tech on offers

The client was losing offers at a 40% rate. We rebuilt their candidate experience and compensation narrative — reducing offer declines to 9% in a single quarter.

−31%
Offer decline rate
1Q
Turnaround
HR Consulting · Lisbon

Compensation and levelling framework for a 120-person tech company

No consistent levels, no market-aligned bands, high senior attrition. We built a full framework and rolled it out with the leadership team over eight weeks.

8w
Delivery
120
Employees re-levelled
The team

Founded by practitioners.
Led by founders.

M
Márcio Bastos Teixeira
Co-Founder

Talent acquisition specialist with deep expertise in IT hiring across Portugal, Europe and LATAM. Brings a practitioner's perspective to every search — with a track record of placing technical talent that companies couldn't find on their own.

IT RecruitmentExecutive SearchPortugal · EU · LATAM
R
Rachel Bennett
Co-Founder

HR Operations and Senior TA leader with cross-market experience spanning the US and Europe. Leads client delivery, operations and strategic HR advisory — with particular depth in compensation, people process and organisational design.

HR OperationsTA LeadershipUS · Europe
Careers

Join a team that
knows the work.

We hire people who are rigorous, direct and genuinely curious about how organisations scale. If you have a background in technical recruitment or HR in the EU or US tech market, we want to hear from you — even if no open role fits exactly.

RoleTypeLocation
Senior IT Recruiter
Full-time Lisbon / Remote Apply →
Talent Acquisition Partner — US Market
Full-time Remote · US hours Apply →
HR Consultant (Part-time / Project)
Contract Lisbon / Hybrid Apply →

Don't see the right role? Send us a note anyway. We always want to hear from good people.

Get in touch
Contact

Let's talk about
your next search.

BasedLisbon, Portugal
MarketsPortugal · EU · United States